Poland get ‘group of dreams’

10th December 2011

The draw for Euro 2012 took place last Friday afternoon in Kiev, with Poland handed about the easiest imaginable draw, leaving them to face Greece, Russia and Czech Republic. That didn’t stop the cover of one of Poland’s main news magazines characterising Poland’s experience of the upcoming tournament as, “Match 1: grand opening, match 2: life or death, match 3: rescuing honour.”

The actual draw featured a lot of dancing and singing and reminiscing over previous Euro finals, plus a brief tribute to the recently deceased Wales manager Gary Speed. It was then followed by an astonishingly complicated rigmarole with balls and bowls, before the final shape of the contest emerged.

Following the draw, some of the visiting sides made decisions about their training bases for the tournament. England surprised many by remaining in Krakow, despite playing their group matches at the far end of Ukraine. The Czech team, meanwhile, is considering staying at home – between matches.

Still in Kiev last Friday, some enterprising reporters from Przeglad Sportowe blagged their way into the after-draw party for some impromptu comments from members of the Polish FA. Amidst a lavish buffet, with dozens of hostesses in national dress circling and posing for pictures with various football delegates, the intrepid journalists cornered Antoni Piechniczek, a member of the 28 strong Polish delegation and a former national team manager.

“A dream group? For Franek [Smuda, current team manager] it’s more like a group of death. Because if he doesn’t qualify, he’ll be out of a job. He’ll have no excuses, because the stronger teams went to other groups,” commented Piechniczek.

Then they spoke to an off-guard Lato. “We’ll qualify from the group, get through to the quarter-finals and then... I’ll resign!” Lato told them, before bursting into laughter. Later on he told journalists how he had lost a EUR 20 bet with Michel Platini that Poland would be drawn in the same group as England.

Meanwhile, Smuda is preparing his squad for a friendly match with Bosnia and Herzegovina next Friday. Polish journalists, though aren’t quite able to explain the point of the match, which has been described as Poland C versus Bosnia B, or its timing, days after Wisla and Legia play vital Europa League games.